Football | Ghana

Kotoko management to keep Didi

Despite pressure from sections of Kotoko fans, the club will keep Masud Dramani after leading the team out of the African Champions League, supersport.com sources indicate.

Getting into the good books of Reds faithful has been tough for the former Guan United coach ever since he came into power, but it was tempered by his decent record of eighteen wins, eight draws and two losses since coming in.

There had been boos and jeers for the team in Kumasi on Sunday following their crashing out of the prestigious competition.

But in a series of mini-meeting held by the club's executive, there is a broad consensus to maintain Didi not only for reasons of continuity, primarily, but also because of perspective.

"The management feel that Masud did not bring in these players he is working with at the moment and so there is no point in sacking him."

The coach has been defended in some quarters because he inherited a solid team, only to lose good players from the sale to other teams outside Ghana.

Backdrop

What many fans do not know is that Dramani had actually played a role in the recruitment of players for this season in addition to supervising a some pre-season games before leaving for Azerbaijan with the Black Maidens for the Under-17 World Cup.

After leading Ghana to a historic place at that level, he came back to Kotoko before they played Lions three matchdays into the season. It finished in a draw.

He continued his record of draws, getting seven of them in 15 games by the end of the first round. More worrying was the fact that the Porcupines were not playing well.

The coach however slowly worked on upturning the team's fortunes with wins in the second round, including the morale-boosting 8-1 aggregate win against Sony Nguema.

But critics point to Didi’s constant tweaking of the team - something he defended vehemently in November - and the failure to get a first team even as the league gets to the business end.

"All this is true, but the management feel that they have not given Masud enough material to work with and understand that sacking him will solve nothing in the long term."